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New Delhi: A Catholic priest charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in Minnesota is working in the office of the bishop of Ooty.On Monday,he denied the allegation and said he has no plans to return to the US to face the courts.
It is a false accusation against me.I do not know that girl at all, said Rev Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul,who allegedly threatened to kill the girls family,and forced her to perform oral sex on him in 2004,at the Blessed Sacrament Church in Greenbush,Minnesota,where he worked.
When Jeyapaul returned to India in 2005,the bishop of Ooty,Rev A Almaraj,sent him to a monastery for a year of prayer.The Vatican was alerted,but did not respond.
AGENCIES
New Delhi: Rev Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul faces two counts of criminal sexual conduct for allegedly assaulting a 14-year-old female parishioner in 2004 at a church in Greenbush,Minnesota,where he worked.Each charge carries a sentence of up to 30 years.Currently working in the office of the bishop of Ooty,he processes teacher appointments for church schools in Ooty.
According to the criminal complaint,the girl accused Jeyapaul of threatening to kill her family if she did not come into the rectory,where he then forced her to perform oral sex on him and groped her.
He is just staying in the bishops house,and he is helping me with the appointment of teachers, said Rev A Almaraj,bishop of Ooty.He says he is innocent,and these are only allegations. Almaraj emphasised that Jeyapaul was engaged only in paperwork,nothing to do with the children or anything.
Almaraj said the church had never discussed asking Jeyapaul to return to the US to appear in court.Foreign ministry officials were not available to discuss whether the US had asked for his extradition.The main group of clerical abuse victims in the US,Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests,has scheduled a news conference in St Paul,Minnesota,to draw attention to the case and demand he be suspended and returned to face justice in the US.
When the accusations against Jeyapaul first surfaced in 2005,the priest had returned home to visit his ailing mother and officials in Minnesotas Crookston diocese told him he should stay in India,Jeyapaul said.On December 21,2006,Monsignor Balke,the then bishop of the Crookston diocese,wrote about the accusations against Jeyapaul to Cardinal William Levada,prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
It is a false accusation against me.I do not know that girl at all, said Rev Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul,who allegedly threatened to kill the girls family,and forced her to perform oral sex on him in 2004,at the Blessed Sacrament Church in Greenbush,Minnesota,where he worked.
When Jeyapaul returned to India in 2005,the bishop of Ooty,Rev A Almaraj,sent him to a monastery for a year of prayer.The Vatican was alerted,but did not respond.
AGENCIES
Ooty priest faces 30 yrs jail per charge in US
New Delhi: Rev Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul faces two counts of criminal sexual conduct for allegedly assaulting a 14-year-old female parishioner in 2004 at a church in Greenbush,Minnesota,where he worked.Each charge carries a sentence of up to 30 years.Currently working in the office of the bishop of Ooty,he processes teacher appointments for church schools in Ooty.
According to the criminal complaint,the girl accused Jeyapaul of threatening to kill her family if she did not come into the rectory,where he then forced her to perform oral sex on him and groped her.
He is just staying in the bishops house,and he is helping me with the appointment of teachers, said Rev A Almaraj,bishop of Ooty.He says he is innocent,and these are only allegations. Almaraj emphasised that Jeyapaul was engaged only in paperwork,nothing to do with the children or anything.
Almaraj said the church had never discussed asking Jeyapaul to return to the US to appear in court.Foreign ministry officials were not available to discuss whether the US had asked for his extradition.The main group of clerical abuse victims in the US,Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests,has scheduled a news conference in St Paul,Minnesota,to draw attention to the case and demand he be suspended and returned to face justice in the US.
When the accusations against Jeyapaul first surfaced in 2005,the priest had returned home to visit his ailing mother and officials in Minnesotas Crookston diocese told him he should stay in India,Jeyapaul said.On December 21,2006,Monsignor Balke,the then bishop of the Crookston diocese,wrote about the accusations against Jeyapaul to Cardinal William Levada,prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith